In addition to providing dinner music at the famous hotel, the orchestra made over 300 recordings and many radio broadcasts.

It was established in the 1890s, and was directed by Carlo Curti in early 1900s, Joseph Knecht at least from 1908 to 1925, later by Jack Denny and others, and then Xavier Cugat from approximately 1933 to 1949.

Music historian Howard Pollack says, "This hotel orchestra, comprising a highly trained group of mostly Italian and Jewish musicians, regularly gave serious concerts, including one that [George] Gershwin attended on April 13, 1913, at which [Charles] Hambitzer performed the first movement of Anton Rubinstein's Piano Concerto in D Minor.

In 1916, Nicholas Laucella collaborated as the principal flautist with Joseph Knecht in a performance of his work Introduction and Temple Dance for an appreciative audience in the Grand Ballroom.

[6] Later in the early 1930s, the orchestral accordionist John Serry Sr. collaborated in the early years of his career with the orchestra under the direction of Misha Borr at various performance venues within the Waldor-Astoria hotel including: The Starlight Room, The Grand Ballroom and the Waldorf Towers, as well as later in his career in 1948 at The Wedgewood Room.

[14][full citation needed] Denny and the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra appeared in the movie Moonlight and Pretzels in 1933.

From the signatures on the picture, together with information from Shilkret's autobiography, his payroll for his radio orchestras from 1928 through 1933 and the New York Philharmonic Archives,[21] the orchestra members, and their principal instrument when known, include the following, with question marks indicating the signatures were not clear: Joseph Knecht (director), V. Adamo, F.

Cassellee?, Leonard D'Amico (violin), Edward Davis, Carl W. Dodge (cello), Joseph Febbraio (horn), R. Fritock, Nicholas Garagusi (violin; Boys' Symphony Orchestra of New York soloist and concertmaster in 1902), Roy R. Haines (trombone), Charles J. Hambitzer (George Gershwin's principal piano teacher), Louison?

Heidelberg, Edward Kilenyi (violin), A. Kirchner (bassoon), Peter Le Fina, Frank Longo (piano), Benjamin Posner (violin), D. Reggel, D. Saeirtel, Max Schlossberg (trumpet), Nathaniel Shilkret (clarinet), Harry K. Spedick, Stefano L.

[3] Several New York Times articles mention the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra with various conductors, including Harold Leonard (1926–1927), Meyer Davis (1929–1932), Nat Brandywine (1932), Jack Denny (1932), and Oscar Adler (1933).

[15] In the 1940s and 1950s the conductor Emil Coleman also appeared regularly with the orchestra at the Waldorf-Astoria's famed Wedgwood Room.

[23][24][25][26][27] Mischa Borr also appeared with the Waldorf-Astoria Dance Orchestra at the hotel's Starlight Roof and the Empire Rooms during this period.

Minus a brass section, the 1932 orchestra that Jack Denny helmed at the Waldorf-Astoria employed three pianos, clarinets, saxophones, strings and possibly a French horn or oboe.